Spa Olive

After my fourth visit (out of desperation), I had to write a review. My first experience was fine, despite the high prices. That was a fluke. The next three times I got a gel «manicure» from 3 different manicurists. Their $ 42 gel «manicure» is a dry manicure with a splash of lotion at the end. The manicure takes entirely too long (over an hour) and it’s terrible. They file your skin, the polish needs another coat. I’m not even to the worst part. On one of my trips, I went to pay with my card. As it was not my first trip to this salon, I knew they had a machine. He informed me at 2pm, their card machine had been down «All Morning» and DEMANDED cash. I explained my manicure took so long, I was late to work and had an appointment, I would get cash and return by 3:30 with my payment, after all, they knew their machine was down and would take some responsibility, right? Wrong. The woman DEMANDED I leave my iPhone as collateral. I explained I would not be leaving my $ 700 iPhone for a $ 42 manicure for a situation that was their fault. I refused and left (returned as promised with my payment).
I Returned the last time out of desperation. I was leaving out of state after work and needed my nails done badly. I stopped in and asked just for gel polish and no manicure. I tried to avoid being late for lunch and just needed paint on my nails. They assured me it was the same price either way. She again, took forever, making me late back from lunch, my extremely thin coat of gel polish made it through the weekend before it all chipped off, and after I paid, she held out her hand and demanded her tip.
This place is a joke!

I work across the street from this nail salon so I figured I would give it a try during my lunch break.
Went in for a shellac manicure and, «Gemma», my manicurist did a terrible job that she tried to justify. I have had lots of manicures in my life and have never had one this poorly executed. I had to go back to work so I did not have time for her to fix the terrible job she had done. Being that I work directly across the street and that I have the potential to recommend this place to lots of people, I figured I would get a local discount. No. Full $ 40. I had to ask for a discount which was a whopping $ 2 off. I left a generous tip on top of the expensive manicure even though I was extremely disappointed.
A week later I went in to simply get the manicure taken off and replaced with clear nail polish. After the fact I proceeded to walk out the door. Before I could even get out the door I was approached by Gemma asking me to pay them $ 15 for a manicure. Astonished, I told them there was no way I was going to pay them any more money. She and her male coworker proceeded to follow me out onto the street to continue to barrade me to pay for ‘the manicure’.
PASS ON THIS PLACE AT ALL COSTS. Rude. Overpriced and Absolutely ridiculous.

How annoying that you have to give even one star to post a review. I was reading through these to see if my experience this past Sunday was an anomaly. Apparently it was not. It mirrored all the more current reviews (the filtered positive ones were from 2009). So now that we know I’m not the only one who found this place incredibly awful and wonder how they stay in business… I will continue.
First of all, a lot of women go to get their nails done on Sunday afternoons (at least those I know). I walk in and this place is completely empty and silent. Like a tomb. There was classical music playing but none of the workers were talking.
I knew there was a problem the moment I sat down. I had brought my own color and had to repeat three times that I did not need to pick a color. I chalked that up to the manicurist being a little hard of hearing. No big deal.
As she is filing my nails, she drops the file at least twice while attempting each nail. I could see that my nails were getting filed into odd irregular shapes (yes, plural. Because each nail looks different. And bad). I start to get a very negative feeling… but I thought that maybe it was her first day and she was nervous. Gave her the benefit of the doubt. She starts putting a base coat on that gets all over the skin surrounding my nails, and as she does so, she asked if I wanted to pay. I said «how should I pay now that you already started doing my nails?» so she stopped, took out a small table fan, and pointed it at the two or three nails she had done. «they’ll dry soon. Then you pay». Ok…
So I paid more than the quoted price when I walked in (apparently the person who told me the price misspoke). The manicurist proceeds to put color on my nails in the most messy, unprofessional, and awkward fashion I have ever seen at a salon. My sister and I did better nails playing dress up when we were kids. I am so serious. There was polish all over the cuticle beds, all over my skin, some even on the underside of my fingers… I wish I was exaggerating. But I’m not. If anything, I’m downplaying because I just couldn’t believe it! I expressed concern, and the grl replied «no they look so pretty. Just let them dry», put the same table fan on again, and promptly disappeared.
I called over her coworker, showed her my nails (for the record, she looked disgusted) and she proceeded to remove the polish. I asked for my money back and she begrudgingly gave it to me. She wanted to redo my nails but I wasn’t about to sit in that weird creepy place with the bizarre classical music and the eerie silence any longer. I just said I was running late and basically ran out.
This place definitely creeped me out. I wouldn’t go back if they were the last nail place left on Earth. I have no idea how their doors remain open. Creepy, creepy place with incompetent and strange people working there. Sorry. I’ll be going back to Dashing Diva.

Yea, it’s clean. It’s a salon on Madison Avenue, it should be clean!
I agree with the other reviewer — creepy man, eerily quiet, bad polish (mine was old and took forever to dry).
My nails were filed crooked (after the first 2 times, I took the file and fixed it myself), there is paint on my cuticles, she didn’t trim the jagged cuticle, and then she rushed the rest when another person walked in. My nails, without exaggeration, look like I did them myself — a week ago.
The lady also dinged my nail as she was painting and when I asked her to fix it, she gave me an attitude saying «you can’t really see it». My basic manicure with tip cost $ 21 — fix. my. nail. now.
I would never go back. Ever. I don’t mind paying more money if the service is worth it but this was just a complete rip off.

I’m giving them 2 stars because the place is incredibly clean & well organized. Other than that, it’s ONE star.
I walked in for a mani/​pedi. I had a man who handled my pedicure. He asked me one question at the start of the session and then was completely silent for the rest of the process. Never looking at me but looking out the window. He clipped my cuticles too close and sort of rushed the process. There was one other worker there and there was no interaction between the two. It was eerily quiet — not in the sense of it being soothing spa quiet but creepy quiet. Weird.
I then moved to manicure with a woman while the man put a dryer for my toes under the desk (I think her name was Lana). The manicure was also silent. While she was shaping my shorter nails with a board, she was rubbing it against my fingers as well. ??? Strange. It was a pretty bad job for a basic manicure (no color, just gloss). The shape was not what I asked for and she all but cut off my nails (I asked for shorter but not non existent). Seriously, I could have done this myself.
I put on my shoes after they checked my toes. I paid and left. A little while later, I took off my shoes to find that my nail polish on my toes was completely smeared. Nail polish plastered on the top of my shoes as well.
A complete waste of money and now I have spend more money to go elsewhere to get this fixed.
I wouldn’t recommend — and quite frankly, I’d avoid it.

Walked in for an eye and lip wax. The woman was very rough with her hands and after I said, «I like them natural and arched, not thin» how did I walk out? With my eyebrows very thin and some lip hairs not removed. Granted I have light blonde hair but I’m tired of incompetent people touching my face. I will not be going back and the prices are steeper than the nearby competitors.

Had a wonderful time at this spa getting a pedicure. While its a little bit expensive it was expected because it’s in Carnegie Hill. We live nearby and will definitely be back.